Vivren

This is really what you need to carry around with you.  Holy crap.

Just don't forget your $180 umbrella in a taxi.

I am a shameless carnivore, but that doesn't mean I want to try to act responsibly once in a while.

Mat and Nat are having a huge sale on their vegan wallets, purses and clutches.  You should check them out!

I really like this little clutch and this wallet.

And this purse.

This one too.

And this one as well.

Decisions...decisions...

This is cute! And clever! The New York accent and everything! 

WHY ARE PEOPLE SO INTOLERANT???

I'm in New Zealand!

Yay!

I went to the Taronga Zoo yesterday morning.  I made it a point to do the crazy touristy thing of getting your picture taken with a koala, which they call a "Koala Encounter."  There were two koalas, Archer and Huxley.  This is Huxley:

Hello, Huxley!

Huxley was very nice and let me have my picture taken with him and let me take his picture.  He is a young koala, I think the zoo keeper said that he was only 3 years old.  The zoo photographer mentioned that there is a noticeable difference between the adults and the younger koalas as they seem so much more active the curious when they are young.  This was true since they both nimbly hopped over to check me out.  The keeper said it probably is because of my shampoo. 

Luckily I got there really early and it was probably the smartest thing I've ever done because about two hours later the place was swarming with kids and parents.  It was such an awesome zoo because you got to get really close to the animals.  I think I was wearing some kind of animal chemoattractant because when I went into the "Australian Walkabout" enclosure this wallaby came right up to my face to say hi.  Obviously I took a picture of him.  Yay for weirdo pouch animals!  Love the marsupials.

Also, I took this really cool video of a platypus swimming around which I will have to try to upload when I get back, since the internet here is a little crappy today.  Monotremes are cool.

I had to take a ferry from Circular Quay to get to Bradleys Head in Mosman where the zoo is (just north of Sydney).  I got some great pictures of the harbor from the ferry, which was surprisingly quick.

I had made it a point yesterday to do this so after the zoo I went hunting for sushi tubes.  I have seen people eating these all over Sydney.  I think it has become food fashion since it is cheap, quick and easy.  Like an extremely fresh and delicious fast food.  I went to two places where one salmon tube was $1.60 AUD and the other place had salmon tubes for $3.00 AUD.  The difference was that you got more salmon and avocado and I have to say that the quality was a little better as the tube was protected by a plastic film and didn't leave rice all over inside the little white paper bag that they give you.  I particularly like the little soy sauce fish that had a screw cap mouth so that it can throw up soy sauce all over your sushi roll.  I guess Australians don't like wasabi?  None came with the rolls.

sushi tubes

All in all, a cool idea.  Quick, cheap, easy.  Of course, I think the whole reason sushi is cut up is because sometimes it is difficult to bite off the raw fish.  Maybe Sydneyites have really sharp incisors.

I had to finish off with dessert from passionflower, which is this really intriguing dessert place that I have been eyeing on my walks.  I tried sesame see flavored ice cream, but it wasn't as mind blowingly good as the lychee rose petal, so I got that one instead.

Lychee Rose Petal ice cream from Passionflower

I had to really discipline myself to not inhale it because it was so delicious.  Afterwards, I saw men dressed as penguins dancing to techno.

They were promoting some cell phone company here called Optus.  It was highly amusing and they looked like they really liked doing it, actually.

I made my way back to the hotel and took a much needed break from all that walking.  Then I geared up to find a place where I could try barramundi which is this legendary Australia only fancy fish.  I walked to the Sydney fish market in Pyrmont and found a restaurant over there called Luxor.  I had Moroccan style fried barramundi with couscous and an olive and pesto bread starter with a glass of sparkling white wine.  It was pretty good!  I only say pretty good because I think the chef was suffering from what I like to call salt Parkinson's or muscle tic because everything was slightly too salty for my tastes, but the bread was freaking incredible and the fish really was delicious.  The meal was insanely expensive just for one person, but I know barramundi is expensive so I was expecting that.  Too bad the exchange rate sucks so much.

Barramundi with Moroccan spices

I walked back to the hotel via Darling Harbor and Cockle Bay Wharf with was alive and teeming with nightlife.  I even stopped to watch this insane fire performer.  He was pretty bad, but amusing.  I have such a great video of it, I hope I'll be able to upload all these cool videos soon.

This morning I'm off to either Manly or Bondi Beach before the conference commences this afternoon.  Yikes!!

Sydney Opera House

I'm in Sydney!

Man, it takes FOREVER to get here.  And it's also weird to think that you can fly for practically 24 hours straight and still get to a place on Earth that is full of people and animals with pouches.  Crazy!

I brought my laptop but I was robbed YET AGAIN by my hotel for internet usage ($25AUD = 24 hours internet).  But at least they have a "free" printer downstairs.  By free, I mean only free if you use

I flew all night and day and so when I got here at 7am, I took my time calling my family and getting to the hotel.  They were nice enough to let me shower, change my clothes, and then they took my bags up to my room when it was ready.  It was perfect.

I then sucked down a huge cup of tea, bought some cheese from a guy who said I was beautiful (he sure knows how to sell cheese!) and then exchanged some monies, where the teller informed me of how to walk to the Opera House.  It was such a great walk!  It took a long time, but I went into some cool shops and really got to know my way around.  I have logged in where the Woolworths is and how many convenience stores there are and seen some of the sights on George Street, like this cool like Aboriginal art gallery where a very impressively gorgeous Australian guy was playing the didgeridoo. 

I finally got to the opera house about mid day, wrote a ton of post cards, walked around lots and took lots of pictures and then walked up to "The Rocks" where I had a DELICIOUS scone and tea at around 2pm.  It was soooo needed.

Scones and tea!

I walked back towards my hotel, mailed the cards at the post office (I got the coolest stamps ever, by the way) and then took the MONORAIL.  SO AWESOME.  I rode it around about a circle and a half, which I think you're not supposed to do, but it was so fun!  Anyway, then I finally checked into my room and took a much need bath.  My feet were exhausted.  After calling the concierge for a plug converter, I then I headed out to scavenge for some milk, cereal, fruit, etc.  Since it was Friday night here, there was loud techno everywhere!  There are also so many clubs and bars!  I think because the weather here is so beautiful practically all the time, I think they really know how to put on an outdoors party.  I was a little jealous because I wanted to check out these exclusive parties.

Random note: I think Australians wear a lot of perfume because pretty much EVERYONE wears it.  I smell it all the time walking up and down the streets.  What's up with that?  Also, Burger King is called Hungry Jack's here.  Haha.

Since I have my own laptop here, it will be easier to blog than on my Hong Kong/Beijing trip.  I'm off to pet some koalas so hopefully I'll have more fun pictures and stories tomorrow.

I just paid $8 for internet so I feel obligated to use it as much as possible.  Man, JFK really tries to rob you of money.

Anyway, I have survived the first part of my journey to the other hemisphere, thought much bumps and uncomfortableness (not a word).  And here I am!  IN NYC.  It only took FOUR HOURS.

So I am determined to use as much internet as possible.  This even means blogging even though I have been horrible and keeping up with posts.  AND if my SD card wasn't all corrupted and weird I would even post the cool ass poster I found on my way here (All I really need to know I learned from watching Star Trek) but alas, I packed my camera cord in my checked luggage.  Oops.

Soon I will be blogging upside down!

Ding ding!

There have been harsh words, hurt feelings and even bloodshed between competitors. In 2004, a couple in their 60s who owned and operated two ice cream trucks were ambushed in the Bronx and beaten with an oversized wrench. The motive, the police said, was the couple’s ice cream route. A rival ice cream salesman was charged with assault and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

While disputes between drivers of ice cream trucks rarely become that violent, they can be cutthroat.

Um, WTF?  An old couple who sold ice cream to kids were each bludgeoned with a wrench over ice cream truck territory issues??  I mean, I hope this is one of those things that is restricted to New York City where space is limited so that it leads to gang wars and fighting, but man.  Makes me think twice about running after the ice cream truck.  I'm not sure if I want to be served ice cream by a psychopath.

Yesterday I was invited to "Fun Club" with my friends and we had burgers and green bean fries at Plan B.  The burgers there are AMAZING and now that I've been introduced the Plan B and have had 2 different kinds of their fantastic burgers it will be that much harder to become vegetarian for a month.  They grind their own beef, in-house and the beef is never frozen.  The result is something so tender and delicious that you can pretty much inhale their burgers and before you know it, all that mouth watering goodness is GONE.  They have these great sides, one of which is truffle fries, which are fries doused with truffle oil (extravagantly delicious).  Another really fun side are the deep fried green beans which are crispy and fresh and covered with CRACK-COCAINE.  Mmmmmm.  I have had the Taco Burger, which has lettuce, tomato, onion, avocados and taco seasonings and tastes like a taco, but was a burger.  That was my virgin Plan B burger a couple of weeks ago.  My follow upper to that was the West Coast burger which has avocado, olive mayo and a fried egg.  Not recommended for first dates, as the yolk seeps out all over your plate and hands, but my my, it is soooo delicious.  Like getting shot up with heroin only BETTER.  Not that I know what that's actually like.  But I imagine that it's like that.

So after stuffing our faces with green beans, burgers and truffle fries, we headed over to Real Art Ways where they were showing Blindsight.  Okay, this movie was amazing.  It's a documentary about these 6 blind children from a school for blind children in Lhasa, Tibet called Braille Without Borders.  Tibet is mainly Buddhist, and generally very superstitious.  When children are born blind, many of them are shunned, abandoned, sold and/or generally uncared for because it is thought that their blindness is punishment for their soul's unforgivable horrible deeds committed in their previous life.  The children meet Erik Weihenmayer who is the first blind person to climb to the summit of Mount Everest.  That's right.  He's BLIND and he climbed MOUNT EVEREST.  Mount Everest!  Aka, 29,035 feet above sea level.  As in, there is so little oxygen up there that you need supplemental oxygen to get to the top.  And so he decides to help the kids climb one of the adjacent peaks to Mount Everest, Lhakpa Ri, which is only 23,000. Only.  I'm not going to spoil the movie so you should definitely see it yourself!  It's just amazing.

What's more amazing is the woman who runs Braille Without Borders, Sabriye Tenberken.  She is blind, rejected by the Peace Corp because of her disability and so she decided to become her own personal Peace Corp and traveled to Lhasa, Tibet and decided to start a school for the blind.  At this school the children learn 3 languages, Tibetan, Mandarin Chinese and English, as well as Braille.  Some of them go from living on the street, getting beaten and having their beggar's money stolen from them to being trilingual and trained in medical massage and able to start their own business.  Astounding.  Basically it made me feel like a real asshole for being able to see and not doing something useful with my life.

While I was watching this movie, I couldn't help but see how yet another negative impact of religion.  These people truly believe that their blind children are bad luck.  Only two out of the six children's families actually supported them and encouraged them and seemed like they actually loved to them.  Ugh.  Can't people be more responsible with their beliefs and rise above the call of religion and just maintain a spirituality which allows you to love and respect all other human beings and living creatures?

Definitely watch this movie.  You will laugh, you will cry, you will be completely amazing and you will leave with a burning desire to visit Tibet.  Okay, so maybe that last part is specific to only me, but if you're looking for an interesting documentary, this is a sure thing!